F. Arthur Jacobson and his book plates

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http://www.archive.org/details/farthurjacobsonhOOjacorich

NE has but to glance at the great
number of artists in and around
New York to have forced upon
him the conviction that among
many it must take a very

food man to make his way in
> No doubt there are a good
many young artists there who find it almost if
not quite as hard to dispose of their wares as do
the literary element, but working on the basis
that true merit will find its own reward in the
long run is a tenet that keeps them at their draw-
ing boards waiting for an opportunity to show
what they can do.

Book-plate artists, or more properly speaking,
those who have designed a few plates, are many
in New York, perhaps more so than in any other
section of our country, and the work of Mr. Ja-
cobson will I think be somewhat new to a great

nwmbcf of oat collectors, who will no douht he
much surprised and pleased by the cleverness of
the designs shown herewith* Mr* Jacobson be-
longs to the host of magazine designers and illus-
trators, and yet differs from many of them in
that his work is distinctive, pleasing and original

Just what it is in his drawings that appeals
to one so strongly is perhaps hard to determine,
but it seems to me that it is their daintiness, and
withal their quiet strength* There is in some
of the plates too a certain humor, never descend-
ing to the grotesque, that is one of the principle
charms of his work, but most of them are dainty
and pretty designs, and it is probable that the
latter style will characterize most of his produc-
tions*

The Charles E. Lydecker shows a plate of de-
lightful humor, with its black cat, tome candle*
It is a plate that grows upon one the more you
look at it, the cat with its unblinking eyes hav-
ing a strong attraction* Another design also
in the humorous vein is that of Emily Clark
Poor, colonial in style, and it has a black cat rub-
bing contentedly against the man's legs* Frank
Aikens Jacobson seems to pose as a lover of the
horse, and likewise of books, with which he has
filled the back part of his equipage, perhaps this
latter fact accounts for the cherubic smile on his

face* George "Winf ield Fairchild is evidently a
lover of nature and reads along undisturbed by
the wind blowing his skirts about* The plate
for Kirke La Shelle lid, son of the famous libret-
tist, is a very successful design showing the ow-
ner perched in a voluminous and comfortable
armchair, engaged with one of his tomes, proba-
bly a fairy tale* The Jessie E. Struthers would
possibly be called Colonial, with a charming bit
of landscape in the background, a very pretty
plate of the conventional type* The Thomas
plate is a pretty design of someone^s front door
with an old fashioned knocker and little girl*
Thomas Towar Bates if we may believe the de-
sign of his plate is obeying the behest of his mid-
dle cognomen ''towar*'* Three plates in quite
a new style are those f or W P T showing a ram-
pant lion, the sign chosen as the mark of my
press, the one for J E S, a rose, and that for F A J,
a goose on wing* These nicely colored by hand
make a very brilliant showing* The design for
Alan Franklin Gilham seems to be rather on the
picaresque order, and is very attractive* Kate
Everett Jacobson's is Colonial in style, a very
dainty, pretty plate* It suffers perhaps from be-
ing in half tone, but was probably reproduced by
this method as giving a softer, smoother effect
than the line plate, the photogravure would con-

vey the spirit of the drawing m«ch better^ One
of the most successful of Jacobson's plates is that
for Jay Vivian Chambers* A daintier, more ap-
propriate plate for a child could scarce be con-
ceived* The little fellow is riding his hobby
horse, and perusing his book with diligence, and
as a fact, I believe he has a strong predilection
for books with nice pictures, preferably in color*
Very few book-plates of these times carry the
owner's name and address for the reason pos-
sibly, as the late Gleeson White advanced, that
although it is a very good custom and would
give the borrower of a book all possible details
as to where to return the volume, it would at
the sametime let loose upon one the hordes of
book-plate collectors all over the world and he
would be continually besieged by requests for
his plate* However this may be it does not
seem to have counted for much with Mr* Jacob-
son who in his own plate has boldly added his
address*

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